Rocky View Schools (RVS) is expressing its public support for the Smith government's mult-billion dollar pledge to build new schools to keep up with increased demand.
Premier Danielle Smith announced in a televised address to the province on Tuesday evening that Alberta will spend $8.6-billion over the next seven years to address growth of the province’s student population. Smith said the province’s strong fiscal position with a surplus this past year and a modest surplus expected this year allows for the injection of billions in the capital budget for new K-12 schools, an increase of roughly $6.5-billion from April’s budget.
In a statement released Thursday morning, RVS said it "appreciates the government has plans to address the acute and unsustainable pressures RVS schools and other schools across the province are facing due to increasing enrolment. RVS has experienced significant enrolment growth for many years."
RVS also endorsed the approach of accelerating construction times for existing urgent projects, and not just new school builds.
"Mid-year announcements, the flexibility to accelerate timelines for urgent projects when they are ready to move forward, additional modulars and increased funding to help maintain our existing, over-utilized schools and aging facilities provide us with hope future relief is on the way," the RVS statement reads. "RVS eagerly awaits further certainty from the government on our projects to help guide RVS in making informed decisions to address growing enrolment and support all students across the division."
Alberta is Canada’s fastest growing province with a population expected to soon reach 4.9 million, according to provincial estimates. The population expanded by nearly 205,000 people, or by 4.41 per cent, between April, 2023 and April, 2024 – the highest year-over-year growth rate since 1981.
-With files from the Canadian Press
See related story: Danielle Smith lays out $8.6-billion education spending plan to address growing student numbers - Cochrane News (cochraneeagle.ca)
